Nothing Goes As Planned
New Alderaan was not all government offices, military bases, residential areas and parks. There had to be work for the many who lived here, and a large number of them could be found in the outskirts of the city. Into the many hills and mountains that surrounded New Alderaan proper, a veritable maze of factories, industrial zones and commercial parks could be found stretching out in all directions. But beyond that, in the steeper areas and at the very edge of the outskirts there was another sector of New Alderaan to be found. Slums, abandonned warehouses and land that has yet to be claimed by property development, could be found. It was here that Rainier was waiting, beside a factory that was for the most part riddled with holes, the window's glass long gone and instead the elements have been left to enter the inside of the building, quickening its eventual crumbling. The man leaned against a clean, cleaner anyway, side of it, smoke occasionally puffed out from his cigar. Garbed in fairly nondescript clothes and a dark green hooded cloak that does a fairly good job of concealing the identity of its wearer from those who would only be casually familiar with him, the Mon Calamari Senator is walking down the side of one of the streets. The flowery herbal smell of his cigarras make for easy stalking, out of place it is in the industrial environment, as Tokoga makes his way toward the factory that Rainier's message had specified as their meeting place. Not too far away, Myiari is staked out in a small, dark alleyway just barely wide enough to accommodate her frame. She remains hidden behind a small stack of barrels and crates, peeking out from cracks in between the containers that allow her to see and hear everything that goes on. Her blaster holster has been left unfastened, the weapon left in easy access should the need arise. "Took your sweet time.", Rainier says when the Senator is seen, certainly he hasn't actually seen the Senator's face, but who'd wear a cloak and be here at this time of the day? The small stub of his cigarra that remains is thrown to the floor and crushed under the man's boots. "So, you brought a blaster? I don't expect this situation to get hairy, but you never know with people like these, they may suspect me and I'd rather not have to backup that doesn't know how to shoot." "Yes, well, this isn't exactly the easiest place to find. These warehouses all look the same." Once stopped near Rainier, Tokoga glances behind him to ensure that the two of them are alone before answering anything else. "Of course I'm armed. And alone. Not quite a new experience for me," he adds, taking a puff of his cigarra before dropping it to the ground and crushing it underfoot. "These people you've found, who are they?" From her hiding place, Myiari likewise surveys the area - as best as she can, anyway - and quietly shuffles around to get closer to the pair so that she can more easily hear. She slinks between the stacks of debris, trying to make as little noise as possible while trying to stay out of sight. By now she is within a few feet of them, but she is careful to ensure that she remains within the shadows. There was no one else to be found behind Rainier or in the immediate area for that matter, nothing but the occasional pitter patter of a cvritter scurrying this way or that or of the wind howling as it made its way through the derelict area they were in. "They're a touchy bunch, real hardasses as far as it comes to doing things the proper way, which just means their way. They don't brook insubordination or a lack of loyalty. And they really, really hate people like you senator.", Rainier's answer given with something of a smile, as if the man was privy to some joke only he could hear. "Incidentally, Senator, I'll need you to put your hands up very high now and keep them where they can be seen." "Shocking," Tokoga answers flatly--not that he was expecting to end up with an amiable bunch of folk in a place like this. Rainier's request puts him off visibly, however, and immediately gets the Senator thinking maybe it wasn't that great of an idea to come alone after all. "For what? Don't tell me that anyone's worried about an old man like me wrecking up their livelihood." Only half cooperating, the Mon Calamari raises his hands roughly to the level of his head, his eyes following Rainier warily. Myiari draws her blaster, but doesn't reveal herself quite yet, instead opting to hang back and wait for Rainier to make a move. Again, she scans the area, checking to see if the man has any impending reinforcements. Peeking out slightly from behind the stack of crates, she trains her eye on Rainier, not allowing him or the Senator to leave her sights. "Thank you for cooperating so far, Senator. It's just that some people don't want to take chances at all when it comes to their imminent meeting with you.", Rainier says he approaches Tokoga, his own weapon withdrawn from the holster he had it on. The blaster is aimed at the Mon CAlamari, although it is more a precaution then anything. "Now, please tell me where it is that you have your weapon, we wouldn't want them going off accidentally and then doing you unnecessary harm." The man's voice was clear as he approached Tokoga, the echo of his words mingling with that of his boots striking the ground, going through the abandonned factories and buildings that made up their immediate surroundings. "And don't attempt anything please, it would be a waste of your time." Myiari voices a soft curse under her breath, her blaster trembling slightly in her hand as she seemingly debates on what course of action to take. Inhaling slowly, she nods silently to herself and flicks her weapon's setting to stun, carefully shifting into a comfortable firing position from behind the crates. A faint noise sounds from behind Myiari, and a lone figure appears at the other end of the alley. Its hands rise, and the telltale click of a blaster echoes down to her, the barrel leveled toward her head. The figure takes a step forward, the light falling upon the hem of its clothing. Trousers, tunic, gleaming shoes, and the dull snout of the gun. A male, and a familiar one at that, his usual friendliness gone and replaced only by unadulterated contempt. Brek Halsmer, his eyes cold and his demeanor fully military. His head jerks to one side and then the other, a brief, clipped shake. With his free hand, he gestures toward Myiari's gun, and then the ground. "You know where it is." Tokoga grins a little, looking pointedly at his right sleeve. "I hope you find enjoyment in this while it lasts, Rainier," he says calmly, "Because it isn't going to last for very long." Rainier smiles, "I don't know Senator, I don't think I'll need it to last very long. What do the holo-networks say, don't mind the interruption, we'll go back to your regularly-scheduled programming very quickly.", the weapon he moves to retrieve, switching his blaster to his left hand even as he reaches with the right. As he nears Tokoga, perhaps the Senator might be given the glimpse of a little earbud in his right ear, small chatter heard coming from it, or at least that is what Rainier hears, beyond him it just sounds like static. "Come out, everyone.", he must be carrying a microphone somewhere on his body, or else Rainier just likes to spout off nonsense at the worst of times. Myiari freezes immediately and turns her head slightly to see who is behind her, though by the stricken expression on her face, it seems she already knows. "You're with him, aren't you," she murmurs, a note of hurt in her voice. Her body stiffens as she lowers her blaster, but after that, she doesn't drop it or make any indication of moving. She manages a soft, bitter laugh, her eyes sliding shut. "I'm an idiot... Before you shoot me, tell me one thing: Was it all a lie from the very beginning?" When she opens her eyes again, the gaze that meets Brek is calm, though mixed with a touch of anger. "Yeah," replies Brek smoothly as he moves forward, the blaster still leveled at her, his footsteps deceptively soft on the hard pavement beneath him. His eyes glitter with anger, narrowed to tight, compacted slits, his hands curled in a loose, almost loving embrace around the grip of the pistol. "But I'm sorry, honey," he remarks, bitterness in his own tone. "It's not me, it's you." A faint, hysterical grin crawls over his lips. "You never told me you were more than just a civilian. You never told me you gunned down stormtroopers. I know what's gonna happen now. You're gonna try and tell me you had no choice, that it was them or you, but that's not true. You killed men who were trying to make a decent living. You killed them for following orders. You killed them because it was the easy way out, because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You're disgusting." He gestures again, more emphatically. "Drop the kriffing gun, girl." "Nice hardware. I don't know whether to be offended because you don't trust me to actually be alone, or to be smug and amused at the fact you think that you need more manpower than just you to capture me." The blaster on the Senator's person is the same one that he had been sporting in the cantina the last time the two of them had words--attached as it is to the hold-out mechanism, it demands that the whole thing, arm-sling included be removed to disarm him. Though this isn't that difficult of a task, it does require either the use of both Rainier's hands or some really creative twisting and pulling. "So, what was it? Money?" The thought that this might have been Rainier's plan the whole time and everything else was completely unrelated hasn't crossed Tokoga's deductive faculties yet. "Authority?" "The first of our guests.", Rainier says as he turns his head, looking just past Tokoga at the first pair to approach at his prompting. "It seems that I have created something of a rift between the two, I wonder if they'll ever forgive me.", the second part of his statement is whispered in a conspirational manner to TOkoga as only he could hear. "Everyone's here now.", the last part he says as others begin to join them, three others to be precise, coming out from buildings and corners that had until then not deserved any notice. There was only one thing that could be said about them, the white armour they had on from head to toe as well as the E-series rifle they held made clear what that could be. A growing look of dread settles on Myiari's features as the other figures begin to move into view. She offers up another bitter laugh to Brek, shaking her head. "I'd try to explain myself, or say I was sorry, but... I don't think I'll ever get a chance to, or that you'd even listen to me if I did." Her grip on her blaster tightens briefly, and her nervous expression soon gives way to one of grim resolve. "But I really did like you. Just wanted you to know that..." As soon as she finishes, Myiari drops to the floor and sweeps her legs at Brek's feet, aiming to knock them out from underneath him and hopefully provide enough of a distraction. "You weren't bad yourself!" responds Brek fiercely, even as he jumps over Myiari's legs and alights beside her. He tosses his gun away thoughtlessly, moving in close and opening his retaliation with a vicious right hook toward her midsection. He adjusts his stance in order to gain a firm command of the ground, raining down sharp, but precise blows toward the end of incapacitating Myiari. "Oh, I see~." Tokoga says, looking around at the stormtroopers. "So, was this your plan since before you got here, or did it just happen to fall so nicely together for you? I wish I were that lucky." The noise behind him draws his attention away from coming up with petty ways to insult his captors, and his line of sight to the source of the noises. If they had been in any other situation, the recognition that Myiari had been dating a stormtrooper would have been beyond hilarious to the Mon Calamari, but all the guns leveled on him are something of a buzkill. In any case, he isn't expecting Myiari's resistance to last very long. Rainier looks at the fighting pair, not your standard lovers' quarrel certainly. "That is enough, Trooper. She has her uses still.", his voice when he addresses the fellow Imperial certainly not what one is used to from the man. His blaster is holstered next, the safety, however, remains off, and he crosses the distance between him and the senator. "No funny business, now.", Rainier says before reaching towards the man's sleeves, attempting to remove the blaster within. Brek's punch catches Myiari off-guard and drives squarely into her stomach, causing her to stumble backwards into the stack of crates she had previously been using as a hiding spot. As her back collides with the hard surface, her blaster slips out of her hand and onto the ground, and she's left briefly winded. Despite Rainier's orders to Brek to stand down, the low growl Myiari lets out makes it clear that she has no intention of doing similar. Using the crates as leverage, she pushes herself off of them and lunges at Brek, raising her fist to deliver a hook to his face. Brek, momentarily relaxed as he steps back from the fray, is too slow to react to Myiari's counterattack. He tries to whirl aside, but succeeds only in torquing himself awkwardly, his torso and face remaining turned even as his legs attempt to carry him aside. The fist catches him in the nose, blooding him, his hands spreading out for a moment as if to ward out the initial impact. He staggers back, snorting droplets of crimson red to the ground, glaring and growling fiercely as he builds his momentum, draws back his hands, and flings himself at the woman again, the last vestiges of mercy gone. His end is to down her, quickly and violently. While Rainier is working with the straps on the his hold-out blaster's ejection mechanism attached to his arm, Tokoga can't pass up the opportunity to act even if it isn't going to do anything. Besides, its his fault this Myiari is in the situation that she's now in. Even if he didn't ask her to come along, its obvious that she came out of some concern for his welfare, and he can't help but feel guilt for that. As Rainier's hands move across the straps, Tokoga turns his wrist, engaging the mechanism to flick the blaster out over Rainier's fingers with the goal of getting them stuck/injured in between his arm and the small metal bars that attach to the handle of the blaster. Assuming this works as intended, the Senator then drags his arm to the side to pull Rainier off-balance, and proceeds to uppercut him squarely in the face. It would all be well if it worked as intended, Rainier's plans to have the two prisoners brought in without harm would have been perfect it it worked, Tokoga's plans would have given both him and the medic a chance at freedom, but it doesn't work. At the first of the Senator's movements, Rainier steps back and to the side, jumping back in fact, his caution having given him the edge needed in being prepared. But before he has fully landed on his feet, the man has reached for his blaster, drawing it out, "Enough.", he says loudly, the blaster trained towards Tokoga, "Try that again, Senator. Go ahead, try that again, I dare you. That goes you as well, Myiari, anything else from you and the Senator loses a limb." As Brek charges at her, Myiari dodges it easily, taking a spinning step outward and attempting to use her momentum to drive her elbow into the back of his shoulder as he moves past her. She freezes at Rainier's words, however, stopping mid-strike and allowing her arm to drop, albeit reluctantly. The medic clenches her fists at her sides, her face flushed and her body trembling with rage as she glares at Rainier. "Fine," she growls. "You win. For now." Brek pauses, swallowing audibly, another snort ridding his crushed nostrils of a disgusting, dripping chunk of scabby blood. It strikes the ground with a soft slap, and he turns to stare at Myiari, his own eyes filled with a wild, hateful rage. His shoulders, tense for a moment, slowly drop, his chest heaving as he takes and purges breath, slowly winding down from the brief, intense brawl. He steps back, glancing to the ground, and snatches up his gun and Myiari's. Turning toward the entrance of the alley, he marches out to meet Rainier, beckoning sharply to Myiari. "Hurry up," he snaps, but the waver in his voice hints at something more than restrained anger. "Let's not make this complicated." "Don't stop on my account, Myiari." Tokoga says. "I'd rather live with prosthetics than the guilt of knowing I didn't do everything I could to stop the likes of you!" The second part, obviously, is directed at Rainier, and comes in a very angry, almost growling tone very uncharacteristic of the normally playful and kind-mannered Senator. The stormtroopers have neared now, their weapons raised and pointing at the Senator and Myiari, a last one having joined them after climbing down from the building he was standing overwatch from. "Heroics will only make your life that much more miserable. Let me put you out of your misery before your deal any more damage on yourself or your friend.", his hand shoots forward, the butt of his blaster striking the Senator's temple with enough force to first draw blood and most likely send him unconscious. "Senator Tokoga!" Myiari starts forward as the Mon Calamari goes down, her hand instinctively flying to her holster, only to find that it's not there. A quick glance off to the side reveals it lying on the ground a few feet away where she had dropped it - too far for her to make a dash for it. Lacking any other immediate options, she reaches into her jacket pocket for a button on her commlink. Brek knows Myiari, however, and he knows exactly where she keeps her commlink. The second he sees her hand moving he reacts, lifting his own blaster and swinging it in a short, controlled arc. The entirely movement is a blur, lasting scarcely more than half a second, and by the time the sickening retort of metal on flesh is heard, the trooper's hand is back by his side, the pistol's butt glistening with droplets of blood. He had struck Myiari across the back of the head, with his usual trained precision, with sufficient force to render her unconscious for a time. "Sorry, Lieutenant," he comments neutrally, snapping off a quick salute. "The girl was going to call for help." He holsters the gun again, bending down to check on the fallen medic. Rainier looks down at the Senator crumpled down at his feet, "What is it about these people that makes them do things the hard way?", the question is just a question, just a random thought that Rainier lets out for other's enjoyment. There is no answer expected as the man continues on as if he said nothing, gesturing towards the armoured troopers, "Take these away to the outpost, we'll follow along to make sure you aren't followed.", Brek, it seems, is to ride with RAinier himself on his speeder. "No worries, trooper, you are expected to improvise when your mission requires it." Brek nods his assent, wiping his hands on his now irrevocably stained civilian garments. He eyes them with a grimace, looking entirely unsuited to them as he marches across to join his superior. Something about his demeanor and the brisk, angry way he strides across causes the stormtroopers moving to retrieve Myiari to avoid him, curving out of their way to stay out of his path. The man seems scarcely to notice them. "Improvisation," he remarks softly as he joins the lieutenant, smiling sadly. "It's almost a lifestyle now. Nothing ever goes according to plan." His broad shoulders lift in a shrug, and he glances over one of them, watching a few of the white-clad soldiers carrying Myiari away. "At least I know better now."